This is a hot mess from top to bottom. Every actor is just going for it, but the plot is hard to get around. It dips and dives in so many different directions that play as a metaphor for trying to avoid death, but just becomes about rich people being dicks because they love Satan so much The production design pretty great especially with how vibrant the colors are and the scene was the daggers is so good, but other than that the real saving grace of this film is Vincent Price. His voice is so commanding and performative that you are can’t help but be drawn into him. It is also amazing how close Maurice LaMarche gets to impersonating him and Orson Welles and how they sound so similar.
Quarantine Watch #607: Fallen Angels (1995)
I love what Wong Kar-wai is able to do with his team of people. The atmospheres he creates are so entrancing. This comes from the compositions of the scenes, the out of bounds cinematography, and the soundtrack. It really causes you to have a unique experience. All of that being said, I had a very hard time connecting to it unlike my experiences in other Wong Kar-wai films. The hitman stuff was something I couldn’t latch onto. The plotline between the girl and the mute guy is much more compelling. Knowing this is an idea originally for CHUNGKING EXPRESS makes a lot of sense, and when viewed in that context helps it go down better. The differences between the camera lens between the two films really is an amazing concept — long lenses for CHUNKING and wide angle close-ups for FALLEN ANGELS. I really need to rewatch it, if just to breathe in more of the technique and style of the filmmaking.
Quarantine Watch #606: Cooley High (1975)
While watching this, it is impossible not to see films that influenced it (AMERICAN GRAFFITI, Italian Neo-Realist films, etc.) and the films that were influenced by it (HOUSE PARTY, SCHOOL DAZE, BOYZ N THE HOOD, DAZED AND CONFUSED etc.) It is amazing because it is a perfect middle point between high school films of the past and high school films yet to come. The dialogue is so natural and everything plays out in such a real way that it is amazing how director Michael Schultz was able to capture it. This is especially true in the sex scene which is so sensual but also masterfully and tastefully shot. It is so great that this film became a hit after being made for so little. Glynn Turman is so good in this as well. It is a shame the film isn’t as talked about as it should be, because I wasn’t even aware of the it until I saw it on a list of essential films Spike Lee put out.
Quarantine Watch #605: Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972)
I really grew to love the first two films in this series, but this one felt a little lackluster for me. This comes down to the structure of the film and how there is a lot going on that makes the film feel episodic and less cohesive. That being said, Ogami Ittō is such a great character because he is an assassin who really only cares about completing the job, but he has honor behind him that comes out in such great ways — like when he takes on the torture the woman is sentenced to. The film was also very rapey — two rape scenes seemed like a lot and it just felt a lot darker than the previous films despite the bright red gushing blood that paints this series. The final fight was great and I was cheering when the baby cart has new surprises. In terms of films happening chronologically in story (not when they are released) this feels like the first Batmobile complete with gadgets. I also liked that Daigoro is a little older here and has a bit more personality and agency than he did in the previous installments.
Quarantine Watch #604: Blow the Man Down (2020)
This FARGO-lite indie was interesting and well shot. I loved the specifics of the world complete with sea shanty singing longshoremen. The best thing this film has going for it is the AMAZING cast that was assembled. Sophie Lowe is a revelation. Gayle Rankin had an amazing 2020 between this, PERRY MASON, and THE CLIMB, she is so good and will be one of the best actresses we have in coming year — a new Michelle Williams or Carey Mulligan of sorts. June Squibb is so lovely and Annette O’Toole plays her role perfectly. Margo Martindale is always great, but I do feel like she plays this character all the time. The ending is also pretty great, considering that the film meanders on a bit towards the middle.
Quarantine Watch #603: Reefer Madness (FKA Tell Your Children) (1938)
Of course this is a terrible movie, of course it is. From the intention and propaganda behind the people who made it to the people who cut it to show as an exploitation film. They wanted to just scare kids away from weed and the way it is done is so over the top that you can’t help but laugh. It makes weed seem like a mix between cocaine, meth, and heroin and that if you smoke it once you will become an unhinged murderer. Needless to say I smoked as I watched it with my parents and had a fun time. It wasn’t a great bad movie watch, but it was fun.
Quarantine Watch #602: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
I hadn’t seen this since freshman year of college and honestly I forgot all about it until I started it and the memories rushed back in. It is such a well made avant garde short that explores dreams and carnal want. The techniques implemented here are timeless and the mirror face is so great. It comes off the heels of the work of Luis Buñuel, specifically UN CHIEN ANDALOU, but this plays so much better than that one.
Quarantine Watch #601: Jim Jefferies: Bare (2014)
If there was one Jim Jefferies that showcases the quintessential Jim Jefferies, it is this one. It is the moment where he transcended to a completely different level of stand-up and it is always a fun revisit. From the infamous gun control stuff to the Men vs. Women material to the Oscar Pistorius bit, all of it is so strong and funny.
Quarantine Watch #600: Time (2020)
This is a tough movie to watch, because by now it just feels like a sick joke over the concept of mass incarcerations of Americans, specifically Americans of color. A mistake or a crime without a death shouldn’t lead to a 60 year sentence. The time filmed in the present is beautifully shot and the work the family puts into not only their own development as they mature, but into their cause is admirable. The home video footage is nice when juxtaposed to the story as it feels nostalgic, especially with the jazz piano score underneath. While only 80 minutes, the film still felt long and the pacing was slow, but I guess that slowness reflects the criminal justice system. It really helps you see the human beings involved in stories like this that have been happening to family for centuries in our country. That humanization is the lynchpin to the film, but the best part is the rant she has at the end of the film after hanging up the phone and her sheer frustration with the inanity of the system and the lack of respect for human beings the system shows.
Quarantine Watch #599: In a Lonely Place (1950)
I had no idea the writing in this would be that good. The dialogue feels like something out of a Billy Wilder film or HIS GIRL FRIDAY with how quick the back and forth is between the characters. Everything is so biting. It also does a great dance between balancing who’s POV we are in — Dix or Laurel. There are times where you think either one of them could be the murderer and that’s the point. It also feels like a great pairing with something like STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and what happens when a man is inherently violent. The question this film forces you to reckon with is that just because someone is short tempered and quick to violence, does that mean they are a murderer? Normally films about filmmakers tend me a little to much for the people making it, but it never felt this way here. At the same time, Bogart plays a writer so well. He knows what is like to enter someone else’s mind. The film feels way ahead of its time in way of plot and what it is saying about human relationship and emotions.
Quarantine Watch #598: Pickpocket (1959)
This is my first Robert Bresson film and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. The film reminded me more of the films that came after it like Christopher Nolan’s FOLLOWING and the works of Jean Pierre Melville’s films in the 1960s. Bresson loves Russian literature, that’s easy to see, and this feels like it was ripped from a novella by Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. It’s almost as if he took the density of Russian literature of the 19th and 20th centuries and streamlined it into a quiet, simple film. His camera work feels very inspired by Italian Neorealism, and that realistic quality is what works in this films favor. The Gare de Lyon sequence pickpocket is the best part of the film, is so expertly choreographed, and edited. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work with the film, but it fits it so perfectly and makes the film so much more engaging. Martin LaSalle’s face is so great for this character and his performance, specifically as a non-actor, is pretty great. I also loved Marika Green in this and I really want to explore more of her work. The narration is also fantastic.
Quarantine Watch #597: Casualties of War (1989)
Man that was brutal and cut me deep to my core. I was on edge the entire time because this is scarier than any most horror movies. The overwhelming dread and anxiety that washes over you as you contemplate how you would handle the situation if you were Michael J. Fox. Do you intervene and kill your own men to stop pure evil at the cost of your own life? It is a no win situation no matter what because you can’t live with any of the outcomes. The aftermath of the horror is just as compelling, even though you breathe a sigh of relief once you are out of the jungle, because sitting through it is just tense and horrifying. When Michael J. Fox tells that guy to go fuck himself, it feels so good because justice is on its way. The film also causes you to think about the cost of war, kidnapping and raping a girl is a terrible thing but is it okay to go into a country and kill people just because they fight you too. The reason the film works so well comes from two places: the acting and the directing. Thuy Thu Le was ROBBED of a Best Supporting Actress nomination at every award ceremony for her outstanding and honestly hard performance as the woman who is kidnapped. Michael J. Fox is the perfect casting for the role as he still has a baby face, but is great at standing up to the much bigger Sean Penn. Penn’s rage is totally on display and it works so well. It doesn’t feel like acting, it feels like he is the character and that character is fucking destroyed and rage filled to his core. There is one moment where he screams and yells at someone and it is so visceral, it can only be true desperate anger. Brian de Palma directs the film like a suspense thriller or a horror movie complete with his amazing camera work and trademark techniques. This helps to really show how dark and depraved humanity has the capacity to inflict. Ennio Morricone’s score is pretty great, although the music under the speech Fox gives after the new kid explodes on a mine is a little too sappy. That speech also feels very written and plays like someone giving the big speech for the sake of giving a momentous speech.
Quarantine Watch #596: The Sound of Music (1965)
This film looms large, not just in scale, but in its legacy within the cultural zeitgeist. I knew of the image of Julie Andrews dancing in the field as the camera pushes in on her, Nuns and Nazis were in it, and I knew the songs “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” & “So Long, Farewell.” There’s know reason I should know the words to these songs, but they are so often revisited in our culture that they got slammed into my brain. Surprisingly, despite these things I really knew nothing about the plot, characters, or what could encompass its nearly three hour run time. The opening overture over the beautiful landscapes was so great. It made the music feel natural. This is also the youngest I’ve ever seen Christopher Plummer and he already feels like an old man. it was very interesting to see. While there are a few things that I really adored, like the dance between Maria and the Captain at the party (it is so lovely), Julie Andrew’s infectious joy that she radiates, the production design, costumes, and cinematography, and some of the songs, there is a lot of stuff that is hard to overlook. There is an element of DOGTOOTH or FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC here, with a group of children sealed off from the world and kept rigid since the death of their mother. I felt so bad for all of them especially Liesl who is 16 and forced to hang around her much younger siblings as her only friends, which makes it hard for her to actually grow up (despite her romance with Rolfe). The Baroness is such a strange character. She’s jealous, but is almost played as too much mustache twirly — with the idea of sending away the children so she doesn’t have to deal with them. It feels so overdone. Ultimately the reason the film is able to work is because of its strong themes, character arcs for Maria and Georg, and chemistry between Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. It also feels like the producers really wanted Julie Andrews to bring Mary Poppins on screen (but almost like a younger version of Poppins while she is still a little naïve), since there are a lot of similarities in the two characters.
Quarantine Watch #595: La Belle et la Bête (1946)
“Love can turn a man into a beast. But love can also make an ugly man handsome.”
This film can be summed up in two words: pure magic. The world, production design, costumes, and make up are all just so enchanting. The film radiates being a fairy tale and really stays in that’s lane. It works for this story because the romance at the center of it is so grand. It is really interesting to see what Linda Woolverton and the team of people at Walt Disney Pictures took inspiration from here and what was changed from this film and the original story in BEAUTY & THE BEAST (1991). The film is unbalanced at times, but it is hard not to fall in love with how it is made complete with anthropomorphic furniture and statues and the early movie magic that makes them possible. I’m excited to see more of Cocteau’s imagination in other films.
Quarantine Watch #594: Paisan (1946)
This is the first Roberto Rossellini film I’ve had the chance to see and boy is this extraordinary. It is insane to think about this coming out two years after World War II ended. The landscape he shoots in was just ravished by war. I can’t imagine anyone wanted to go to the theater to see this since it just happened to them, but the stories the six writers wrote for him are so compelling and filled with human stories and scrumptious dramatic irony that I am sure they entranced the skeptics. It makes me think a lot about the turbulent times of today and how I think we should see things that do not reflect the times because we are so bogged down by then, but after being nearly 75 years away from this I see how these types of story are necessary. Most of these tales deal with language and it is one of the only films of its era that honestly portrays language barriers in war films. Everything I have seen from this era to most films of the 20th century, everything is in English to make things more palatable for US audiences due to the use of subtitles not making as much money as films lacking subtitles. I also love how Rossellini reconciles the use of the three languages (English, Italian, and German). The dramatic irony of each story is so gut punching it feels like Rod Serling saw this and then created THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Every time an episode started, I wasn’t that into what was happening, but by the end of each of them I was compelled. This was specifically the case of the final episode when the baby is crying walking through the decimated village where everyone is killed because the US troops were there previously. I couldn’t help but tear up. It is equal shocking when the man kills himself on the battle field. Rossellini is I am SO excited to check out more of Rosselini’s post-war work, specifically ROME OPEN CITY and GERMANY YEAR ZERO.
Quarantine Watch #593: The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
What an electric and alive documentary this is. I am really starting to get drawn into the style of the of ‘70s/‘80s documentaries. They feel way more journalistic than present day docs, in as much as they feel old and interview and less focused on being a real fly on the wall (to contrast it with something like HONEYLAND that plays like a dramatic film but is actually a documentary). I may be biased because of my love of punk rock and specifically the ‘80s punk scene, but the world that Penelope Spheeris digs into must have been eye opening in the early ‘80s. The energy of punk rock is in the DNA of this film and you completely understand this world from top to bottom by the end of it.
Quarantine Watch #592: Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
This is a fucking insane movie. The screenplay is brilliant in how it rights for each specific character and the screwball-like plot of people moving from place to place in the main room of the aunt’s house. I wasn’t too into the entire, “I don’t believe in marriage,” section of Cary Grant’s theater reviewer character. He could have just been a theater critic. Additionally, there is a lot of work the audience has to do in order to let the insanity play out whether it’s Peter Lorre’s Fritz/Igor like character, Raymond Massey’s plastic surgery and his serial killer tendencies, the dumb cop not ever reading the room, no one taking the gag out of Cary Grant’s mouth, and all of the Teddy stuff. That being said John Alexander was FANTASTIC as Teddy. The Epsteins’ screenplay is also so well written that it helps you get past all the craziness. The mechanics of the set pieces are fantastic and there are amazing lines that the characters get (obviously the quote “Insanity runs in my family; it practically gallops" is a standout). The moment when Cary Grant is finally freed from the chair and gag and sits on the stairs is honestly a master class in comedy. It felt improvised and it may be my favorite moment in any Cary Grant performance. I couldn’t stop laughing. I wish Priscilla Lane’s character was included in the story more. It feels like a bait and switch that she is co-billed with Cary Grant at the top, but she is barely in it. Additionally I do not think she should have stayed with him because he treats her like shit, especially because he is so focused on committing Teddy when that is the least of his problems. It is also crazy to see Cary Grant’s fourth wall breaking moments and how they really have transitioned into how characters break the forth wall in comedies, wether they be in Loony Toons cartoons in or in modern day comedies. I wish Boris Karloff could have played Jonathan as he did in the play. I think it would have made the film legendary.
Quarantine Watch #591: Out of Sight (1988)
This was a great follow up after I finished watching LE CERCLE ROGUE. Watched it with my Mom because she didn’t remember it and she loves Jennifer Lopez. It’s one of my favorite movies, George Clooney and JLo have such great chemistry. They just drip with sex, especially in the hotel bar scene. The world is so vibrant in not only color but with a cool attitude that reminds me of jazz. I am also biased because I read the book for a book report when I was in high school, loved Elmore Leonard’s writing and grew super attached to this. The cast is also phenomenal and great and handling the tough tone of the film which waltzes between drama and comedy from start to finish.
Quarantine Watch #590: Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
I love the style and art of Jean-Pierre Melville. When I finally own a house or something similar when I go to decorate I am going to rewatch his films because there is something about the ‘60s classy French style that he perpetuates that’s so fucking cool. LE CERCLE ROUGE is not as strong storywise nor stylistically as LE SAMOURAÏ and the heist isn’t as crazy as RIFIFI, but it is an interesting film to check out nonetheless. The actual heist is the best part of the film and the film suffers from its length, but it is easy to see how this film influenced so many heist films that could come after it specifically the films of Michael Mann and Steven Soderbergh’s OCEAN films. Additionally the prison break story that runs concurrently with the first half of the film, feels like a lot to happen the same day our main character is released, but the chemistry between Alain Delon and Gian Maria Volonté is great so it’s easy to get past.
Quarantine Watch #589: Week-End (1967)
My exploration through Godard’s work has been very stimulating. This is frenetic and just full of energy. It is all over the place. This is part of what Godard is trying to use in order to relay his intentions. I had a difficult time liking the film as a whole. There are moments that are great (like the scene where the girl tells the sex story or when they drive down the long street with the accident), but overall it was too all over the place for me to focus in on it completely.
